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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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Art Basel

NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, January/February 2020

by Nancy Nesvet

Miami Art Week 2019 hosted the people’s fairs. Artists at the most democratic fairs ever at Miami Beach and Miami during Miami Art Week used art and craft to deliver clear messages for all the people, showering truth over fictions. Looking toward the future, and back toward the past, work addressed truth versus colonial myth and threats to our common environment, be they political or climatic. The work demanded that we look at ourselves, examine our attitudes and recognize our differences but realize we must come together to save our common world. Had I a fortune, I would spend it at Landau Fine Art, Montreal, for “Caroline,” 1963, oil on canvas, the Alberto Giacometti painting full of mournful emotion expressed in grays and taupes with sparing lines on an off-white ground; so little said with so few lines, each making a mournful mark. Yves Tanguy’s “Titre inconnu” (5634), 1927, oil … [Read more...] about NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD

WELCOME STATEMENT JAN/FEB 2020

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, January/February 2020

by Brian Goslow

What percentage of what you do is performance art? I asked myself that question on December 15 as Art Basel Miami Beach 2019 was coming to a close. Earlier that morning, Artscope’s national correspondent Nancy Nesvet suddenly woke up around 4 a.m. realizing the reality behind the strange performance built around the global reaction to the sale of two — and eating of one — banana that composed Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” installation on the wall of Galerie Perrotin’s booth at the Miami Beach Convention Center. “Whether appropriation or inspiration, Samuel Beckett’s single-actor play, “Krapp’s Last Tape,” is clearly the motivation,” Nesvet wrote. “With representation of failed work and an illusion to repressed sexuality often cited as the theme of the Beckett play, the banana held and used for gesturing throughout the one act is a phallic shape resembling a microphone, a … [Read more...] about WELCOME STATEMENT JAN/FEB 2020

NANCY NESVET’S ART WORLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2020

// Artscope Online

by Nancy Nesvet

  As we move into the new year, in advance of the arrival of Artscope’s January/February 2020 issue, which will include her review of the highlights of Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Week Miami 2019, Artscope’s national correspondent Nancy Nesvet shares her Ins and Outs in the Art World predictions for 2020:   Selfies are out. Artemisia Gentileschi self-portraits are in (at London's National Gallery).   Gallery walls are out. Paintings found behind the walls are in.   Paintings are out. Drawings found under paintings are in.   Eating bananas is out. Eating gourmet at museums is in.   Paying for museums is out. Getting in for free is in (starting with Boston's new MassArt Museum, which opens in February).   New Museum is out. MassArt's new museum is in.   Glenstone is out. Miami private … [Read more...] about NANCY NESVET’S ART WORLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2020

WIDENING THE SCOPE: ARTSCOPE AT ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, Visual Arts

by Olivia MacDonald

Artscope Magazine had the pleasure of showcasing our November/December issue to the over 70,000 visitors of Art Basel Miami Beach 2019, an international fair bringing together artists, collectors and gallerists for five days of eating, sleeping and breathing art. For the first time, we had the opportunity of having our own booth in the Magazines sector decorated with a variety of work from East Coast-based Artscope artists, rather than our presence in the collective booth in previous years. Paul Pedulla’s “Beyond the Coral Sidewalk” magnetized guests to the booth with its rich colors and one-point perspective of Ocean Drive, free from cars and tourists. The acrylic painting acted as a window to the outdoors underneath Artscope’s logo on the wall, where trees lined the greenway beside Miami’s iconic pink sidewalks that trail out to endlessness. Pedulla voiced that this painting was … [Read more...] about WIDENING THE SCOPE: ARTSCOPE AT ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2019 & ART WEEK MIAMI DAY TWO: INSPIRED ARTISTS ADDRESS A THREATENED WORLD

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

Our second day dawned bright and early on Miami Beach, the morning chill warming up as the day and the dizzying flow of art as we went from one place to another kept the dynamic duo going. It would also hold our first view of the main event, Art Basel Miami 2019, the lollapalooza of art fairs, during its First Choice VIP Preview. Pace Gallery had some great work on display including Fred Wilson’s “Oh! Monstuosa Culpa,” 2013, constructed of Murano glass and light bulbs, that could have been a ringer for Gerhard Richter’s black chandelier painting; an amazing relief sculpture/painting by Loie Hollowell, “Standing in Water,” 2019, oil, acrylic, medium and high density foam on linen over panel; and Lydia Benglis’ “Calypso,” 2017, cast, pigmented polyurethane, looking like a cracked sun that only added to the gothic and sense of impending climatic doom as Venice stands in water and … [Read more...] about ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2019 & ART WEEK MIAMI DAY TWO: INSPIRED ARTISTS ADDRESS A THREATENED WORLD

ART BASEL 2019 DAY THREE: GALLERIES, AND STATEMENTS

// Art Basel Switzerland, Artscope Online, Exhibits, Featured, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

The work in Galleries, the biggest sector of the Art Basel 2019 art fair, with 273 galleries displaying artwork, ranged from very bad to superlative. From large, childlike, messy, grease crayon drawings and similarly unfinished paintings to the refined glitz, and smooth stainless steel and optic glasswork, this sector provided the low and high points of the fair. Not surprisingly, there was much handmade textile work, the best being Sheila Hicks’ “Calligraphy Sauvages,” a 2019 sculpture of 15 chords of silk, wool, linen, bamboo and synthetic fiber — in bright, coordinated colors. Her 2018 linen line drawing, “Je veux être seul,” reminded me of 1930s Bauhaus geometric work. Robert Mapplethorpe’s “Stars,” created in 1983, of stained wood and carpet, presented a rare foray into Mapplethorpe’s textured relief sculptures. At Sperone Westwater’s, New York, New York, booth, Emil Lukas’ “Twin … [Read more...] about ART BASEL 2019 DAY THREE: GALLERIES, AND STATEMENTS